Israel cannot let Trump set Syria policy by default

How did young Ahmed al-Sharaa become a jihadist? According to his account, the outbreak of the Second Intifada in the early 2000s led him to adopt a radical Islamic worldview, move from Syria to Iraq, and join the ranks of al-Qaeda and ISIS to fight American forces that had occupied that country. They captured him and he spent several years in American prisons before being released.

When he returned to Syria in 2012 after the civil war broke out there, he founded the Jabhat al-Nusra organization as a Syrian branch of ISIS. But in subsequent years he began moderating his statements, broke away from ISIS and al-Qaeda, and even declared that the US was not an enemy and that his men would not target American objectives. His men, who then controlled the Syrian Golan Heights, made sure to maintain quiet along the border with Israel.

The Americans were not impressed by these statements. They designated al-Sharaa’s organization as a terrorist group, set a cash reward of $10 million on his head, and sent planes and special forces to strike him and his men.

But since then, much water has flowed in the Potomac River running through Washington, and last week al-Sharaa was received as an honored guest at the White House – with everyone, especially President Trump, eager for his favor.

In his defense, al-Sharaa explains that his jihadist past in the ranks of al-Qaeda and ISIS was like youthful indiscretions of a young man in his twenties, and that he has since matured and changed his path and views. In the US, they also credit him with the fact that since seizing power in Syria he has made almost no mistakes, and that he makes sure to say and do the right things from the Americans’ perspective. Toward Israel too, he maintains a low profile, and repeats again and again his desire to reach a security agreement with it that would ensure quiet along the border between the two countries.

Yet he is a jihadist whose roots are planted in al-Qaeda and ISIS. While sending smiles to the West and Israel, he is turning Syria into a zealous Muslim state that persecutes – and often massacres – members of minority communities, the Alawites, Druze, and even Christians, a state seeking to impose a religious Muslim lifestyle on the secular majority (in Middle Eastern terms) living there.

But for President Trump, none of this matters, as he has decided that al-Sharaa is his man in Syria. In Trump’s defense, one could say Syria doesn’t really interest him, and a statement of his from the previous decade is remembered, in which he said Syria is “sand and death,” and its residents are mired in tribal conflicts. Therefore, Trump explained at the time that his administration had no intention of interfering in what happened in that country.

Besides that, the days have passed when the suppression of minorities or human freedoms troubled anyone in Washington. It also seems the days have passed when Americans would consult with Israel, ask its opinion, and coordinate their moves in the region with it. Today, Israel is no longer counted in the White House, and those who have become Trump’s oracles are his close friends, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, a dictator and fervent Hamas supporter, and, alongside him, the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, another enlightened leader of a state spreading extremism and terror. And these two, as is known, adopted al-Sharaa into their fold, and now the American president follows in their footsteps.

Meanwhile, al-Sharaa markets himself to Trump as someone who will bring an end to the bloody war in Syria, fight ISIS terror, faithfully serve American interests, and even sign an agreement with Israel.

Despite understandable Israeli fears after October 7, al-Sharaa does not currently pose a threat, and certainly not an immediate and direct threat to us, as he heads a destroyed country lacking an army, and continues to view Hezbollah and Iran as the hated enemy and the central threat facing him. This gives Israel maneuvering room vis-à-vis al-Sharaa, but for this purpose, the Israeli government is required to formulate a policy on the Syrian question, something it has not done to date. And in the absence of an Israeli policy, Trump is the one deciding for us – last month regarding Gaza and now also regarding Syria.